It struck me after I happened to see those that that I see so many of them, yet it's a bit cumbersome to collate them over on ContrailScience.com, so I'm starting this thread as a place for people to quickly dump any interesting pre 1995 persistent contrail photo they find.

Please at least upload a low-res version of the photo here, and a high resolution on if copyright laws allow, as links tend to stop working after a few years.

Also include any old books that have photos of contrails, especially books on clouds or weather:

Another linear cloud. Quite possible a spreading contrail. With the rather low frequency of both jet travel and photography in the 1960s, it's rarer to get a contrail in the moment of formation, and we often just see the results, like this, maybe:

That's well spotted! Maybe it was taken through a car window.. We did the 5 lakes in a Toyota van. Unless its a form of photographic bloom. When I get home I'll have a look through the other ones. Pretty sure there was a few quite distinct contrails I caught inadvertently geeking-out at the japanese buildings on foot.

Came across a nice shot of large pre 1977 contrail in one of my favourite films :Gizmo. For all you gadget enthusiasts it's a must see if you can track down a copy and hilarious. Released in 1977 Oscar winner Howard Smith's "Gizmo" is a brilliant compilation of old newsreel footage of human Flies, daredevils, side-show strong men, inventors and crazy and not so crazy inventions from the early 20th century . Besides documenting the origins of Parkour with Arnim Dahl www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p2shHkRrtk monowheels, rollerblades, human powered hydrofoils, the film documents the delightful crank eccentricities of earnest folk who attempt to build innumerable preposterous and over-complicated flying machines with paddles and strap-on flapping wings etc. As a breathtaking finale in contrast to all the misguided cranks who preceded it showcased a 1970s O'brien rogallo wing (hang glider) set to Pachelbel's Canon in D swooping over a ski field.
The opening shot of the hang glider shows a large contrail.
Here are two screen grabs:

I saw this mentioned in a discussion where people claimed that contrails had been added to old films. This is from the 1963 film Irma la Douce, at 00:07:36. There's a persistent contrail that looks like it's been there at least 20 minutes.

The "A/B comparison of an old Disney movie" refers to The Railway Children. Some footage of this was used in a commercial for Virgin Trains which mixed historic film footage with modern footage of electric trains. This was not in any sense a new version of the movie. There is no version of the Railway Children with added contrails.

The suggestion that it would take a "couple of million" to launch a "debunk campaign" is a bit silly. People debunk things for free, because they are bunk.

I very much doubt Clint Eastwood had anything to do with the editing of that film in 1972. And this is the original version. The contrails are in the original. Nobody is adding contrails anywhere in old movies.

The chemtrail believers often repeated reference to the Virgin advert always seems to miss that Virgin trains were ALSO not in the railway children and the advert makers inserted long dead actors who were never in the film either.
I suppose to a paranoid mind the contrails not only have a spooky symbology but the implication of the featured passengers is that the conspiracy also must involve reanimating long dead corpses of "elites".
I wonder what they make of Arnold's "Last action Hero" which also features the same approach?

The bit I posted is from "Chemtrails Kill", which is the page of Roxy Lopez, who has a radio show promoting Chemtrails and similar stuff. They are actually quite useful as a source of finding contrails in old films, like Irma la Douce. Of course they think they are fake, which is quite illustrative of their world view.

The bit I posted is from "Chemtrails Kill", which is the page of Roxy Lopez, who has a radio show promoting Chemtrails and similar stuff. They are actually quite useful as a source of finding contrails in old films, like Irma la Douce. Of course they think they are fake, which is quite illustrative of their world view.

Thanks for the T2 clip! It's interesting that some conspiracy theorists claim this was some kind of deliberate "conditioning". There was also a bridge in the film that had a clearance sign of 9'11", which of course they thought was significant (as if the 9/11 date would have been known ten years earlier).

Thanks for the T2 clip! It's interesting that some conspiracy theorists claim this was some kind of deliberate "conditioning". There was also a bridge in the film that had a clearance sign of 9'11", which of course they thought was significant (as if the 9/11 date would have been known ten years earlier).

"Supposedly a 1950s home movie of contrail formation here. Not very clear what it is though. "

That one was originally posted by a chemtrail believer who had had long arguments with Jazzrock that the trails did not appear in old films. He had quite the epiphany apparently when going through old 16mm movie film of his next door neighbours or a relative of his dad (can't remember the exact details) and found the above footage and the one of the airshow with neat rare appearance of the Doac16 (twin ducted fan vtol aircraft).
I think the guy eventually took his youtube page down but it seems legion managed to save and repost the original films.

Not sure if these are "persistent enough", but there are some quite substantial contrails off the canards of the XB-70 at 2.05 and 2.20 - just for a second or 2 each. I wonder if they are actually smoke for airflow indication??

Brandenburg is the state around Berlin. During the cold war West-Berlin was only reachable from the western world by air through 3 Air corridors. Flying was the only way to reach west-berlin without a border Check by the german democratic republic. The capital of the GDR was East-berlin, they had also a high-frequented airport called "Berlin Schönefeld" (SXF)

During the cold war, planes camed from all around the world over Berlin and Brandenburg :-D